Sick Cycle Carousel
by Syd15
Summary: How does a little girl learn to say goodbye?


**Author's note:** Have I said before how much I hate writing? Well, I've come to the conclusion that it's even worse when the prompt is a picture. But I'm proud of myself because I wrote _something_. True the whole story is not based on the picture, but the first fragment is. Or that was the intention. I guess after the first fragment it just got a life on its own and it went in a complete other direction then what I had "planned" (if what I had in mind can be called that). Not beta at all, so I'm sorry if there are mistakes! Just in case you were wondering, yes, this is for another challenge at fringeverse .

* * *

><p><em>So when will this end?<em>  
><em>It goes on and on<em>  
><em>Over and over and over again<em>

** Sick Cycle Carousel (Lifehouse)**

* * *

><p><em>How does a little girl learn to say goodbye?<em>

Daddy comes back and she smiles.

There are bedtimes stories, weekends out camping, evenings playing around in the park or simply in the front yard and for a while, she feels like the happiest kid in the world.

Until the phone rings and daddy has to leave.

Mom says he's off to save the world. "Kind of like a hero, Livy," but she doesn't really care.

Olivia kisses her daddy goodbye and then runs after the car taking him away. Tiny feet hitting the dusty road beneath them - right, left, right, left - long after the car has disappeared from view.

On the way home, tears clean the dust gathered on her cheeks.

_Repeat in a loop._

(There's a time when daddy doesn't come back home and the loop breaks.)

.

.

.

_How does a little girl lose all sense of fear?_

You poke and probe.

You inject, sedate and drug her.

On the weekends you send her back to a place that no longer feels like home and she comes back with a few more bruises that you won't address and she won't talk about.

You learn you need to make her scared for your project to work so you play with her mind, her fears, bringing her to the brink each and every time.

And every once in a while, it takes a little bit more, a bigger push, to take her where you need her, to make her terrified.

So you push, and push, and you keep on pushing.

_Repeat in a loop._

(You go mad. They send you to a mental hospital and the project stops. Consciously, she forgets all about it, unconsciously, well… In twenty years a whole building - and all the people inside it - will be about to disappear.)

.

.

.

_How does a kid lose her innocence?_

A man walks into a bar - or any place, really - and downs drink after drink until he's drunk enough. Then goes back home and uses his wife and stepdaughters as punching bags.

_Repeat in a loop._

(She hears the car turning, grabs the gun with shaky little hands and shoots with her eyes tightly closed.)

.

.

.

_How does a woman get her notion of reality shattered?_

Her boyfriend has an accident, there's only one man who can help her save him and there's only one guy who can get him to talk to her.

She takes a plane to the other side of the world, begs him to help her. When that doesn't work, she blackmails him into agreeing.

Her boyfriend ends up dying but his conscience stays linked with hers. Again, it's The Man and The Guy the ones who help her out.

They keep working cases together. The Man scientifically explains the inexplicable, The Guy translate it into something somewhat understandable and she tries not to go crazy while doing her job, keeping the city safe.

Computer viruses that dissolve brain matter, ferocious hybrid creatures, spontaneous combustions, shapeshifters, mind controlling teenagers, creepy bold men.

It becomes routine, she gets somewhat used to it all.

The thing is, by now, she's already learned things can get weirder.

She finds The Man stole The Guy from another universe. Selfishly, she agrees to keep the secret, at least for a while. (No more goodbyes, please, no more goodbyes).

It backfires, of course, because he finds out on his own and leaves.

And God, she knows he won't come back. It's not he's style, staying, and really, he doesn't have a reason to.

It kind of forces her to follow him, go there and say it, "You belong with me."

It's open, and it's scary, and it's reciprocated.

The sane version of The Man traps her, locks her in a dark cell and if she were to remember, it would feel like a deja vu, being terrified by him.

A woman steals her life and leaves it completely broken.

_Repeat in a…_

(You see, there's no loop here, that's just her life.)

.

- Fin

* * *

><p>Am I above begging for reviews? Yes. Barely, but yes. Do I like them? As much as chocolate.<p>

**I almost forgot:** here's the picture I used as a prompt: http: . us/img607/6268/prompt5. jpg (erase the spaces)


End file.
